Deepak

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

Here's my conversation all about @FFmpeg, the legendary open-source software powering most video on the Internet. In the episode, I talk with Jean-Baptiste Kempf and Kieran Kunhya. JB is lead developer of VLC and Kieran is FFmpeg contributor, codec engineer, and the person behind the now-infamous @FFmpeg account on X.

VLC (@videolan), by the way, is also a legendary piece of open-source software: it's a video player that can open basically anything & has been downloaded over 6 billion times.

I think both FFmpeg and VLC are two of the most important and impactful software systems ever created, both open source, and both created & maintained by volunteers: brilliant engineers from all walks of life.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to FFmpeg and VLC, and in general to all engineers giving their heart & soul to building systems used by millions (or billions) of people, and often doing so not for money, status, or fame, but purely for the love of building great software and doing good for the world.

Thank you to the builders! 🙏❤️

Shoutouts in this chat to @ID_AA_Carmack @karpathy @elonmusk @TimSweeneyEpic and everyone who is a contributor & fan of open source!

It's here on X in full and is up everywhere else (see comment).

Timestamps:
0:00 - Episode highlight
2:17 - Introduction
5:35 - Weirdest things VLC opens
9:59 - How video playback works
19:20 - Video codecs and containers
30:07 - FFmpeg explained
51:07 - Linus Torvalds
55:46 - Turning down millions to keep VLC ad-free
1:10:04 - FFmpeg & Google drama
1:29:18 - FFmpeg developers
1:35:55 - VLC and FFmpeg
1:40:29 - History of FFmpeg
1:43:46 - Reverse engineering codecs
1:57:01 - FFmpeg testing
2:01:08 - Assembly code (handwritten)
2:25:26 - Rust programming language
2:34:42 - FFmpeg and Libav fork
2:43:04 - Open source burnout
2:50:51 - x264 and internet video
3:04:07 - Video compression basics
3:11:04 - CIA and fake VLC
3:21:39 - Ultra low latency streaming
3:39:07 - AV2 codec and video patents
3:48:59 - VLC backdoors
3:59:14 - Video archiving
4:05:51 - Future of FFmpeg and VLC

[Tom Wong @thomasgwong]

I'm honored that my free textbook, "Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing," was included in this list of quantum computing books worth reading. It's available as a PDF from my website, https://t.co/yKhoatoePK.

[Antonio Lupetti @antoniolupetti]

From today, Algebrica’s content is open, free, downloadable in Markdown, and reusable by anyone.

This is a step toward a university-level knowledge base that is freely accessible to everyone. Entries will be progressively released on GitHub in Algebrica’s public repository, and can be reused for non-commercial purposes.

To increase transparency, I’m also documenting the editorial process and revising content to improve accuracy and reliability. On some pages, a quality indicator is now visible, including a GPTZero score (not affiliated), as an additional signal of transparency.

I believe these changes move Algebrica toward something more open, more reliable, and more accessible.

I’d also like to thank everyone for the unexpected response to the project, and for the many visits and thoughtful comments.

[Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 @ShefVaidya]

I love it when corporate companies try to silence my voice by blocking me on twitter, it only awakens the David
v/s Goliath battle within me, and then I just can’t let go, as @Fabindanews and @TanishqJewelry learnt a long time ago! Now it is the turn of @Lenskart_com.

[Shivansh @25_shivansh]

Absolutely fed up with the anti-customer behavior of @DTDCIndia .
First, they refused doorstep delivery and asked me to collect the parcel (an online order) from their office, which is completely unacceptable. When I declined, they started a daily routine of falsely marking the shipment as “out for delivery,” only to send a message in the evening saying delivery failed.

Moreover, the employee who contacted me was extremely rude and unprofessional, making the entire experience even worse.
This is not a logistical issue, this is deliberate harassment and misrepresentation.

@DTDCIndia why accept shipments you clearly have no intention of delivering properly? Why mislead customers unnecessarily?
Requesting @jagograhakjago to take cognizance of such practices and push for strict regulations against these harassing tactics by courier companies.

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

Publishers have real questions about AI, but let’s be clear: @waybackmachine isn’t a backdoor for AI scraping.

For 30 years, it’s been built for people, not bulk harvesting. We actively monitor to prevent abuse. Learn more ⤵️
https://t.co/YKDkawYd5G

[Deepak @vdm333]

@raghuvir_sainik Hinid is not a language .. it a khichadi of urdu/farsi/local dialacts etc. Better north indians should learn new languages.

[Antonio Lupetti @antoniolupetti]

This is Algebrica. A mathematical knowledge base I’ve been building for 2.5 years.

215+ entries, carefully written and structured.

400k+ views over this time. Not much in absolute terms, but meaningful to me.

No ads.
No courses to sell.
No gamification.
No distractions.

Just essential pages, aiming to explain mathematics as clearly as possible, for a university-level audience.

Built simply for the pleasure of sharing knowledge.

Content licensed under Creative Commons (BY-NC).

Best experienced on desktop.

If it helps even a few people understand something better, it’s worth it.

[Mahesh CR @maheshcr]

Folks, my humble SanskritAid Chrome Plugin is approved in the app store!

General availability, no need to jump through hoops to try it...please download from here(https://t.co/WrJMGR5tMC) and give feedback

See vibhaktis, dhatus, pronunciations...not perfect, but still..

[Thatchaphol Saranurak @eig]

I poured my soul into building this course last fall:

Graph Algorithms via Graph Decomposition

This has been a powerful framework in graph algorithms for over 20 years, but the literature is scattered and technical.

So, I tried to organize part of it into one coherent story.

[Sharat Chander @sharatchander.bsky.social @Sharat_Chander]

Well, my #Java journey has come to an end. Today my role at @Oracle has been terminated.

I’m open to any job leads y’all may have.

[Prof. C. K. Raju @CKRaju14]

Sankrant that's a terrible insult, clubbing my work with that of an illiterate bluffmaster like Crabtree who has no serious degree, no knowledge of math, no serious writings and was never even a school teacher in Australia, nor could be.

I could swallow the insult but this confused idiot has confounds negative numbers of Brahmagupta with the excessively confused version of De Morgan whom this fellow plagiarizes without acknowledgement imagining no one will notice.

You may not know the difference but it is explained in my book The Funny History of Arithmetic (pic1,2) out in a few days. It is a huge joke.

Some will read my book and understand and they will laugh and laugh at Indian math and the frauds who promote it. That is not ur intention, but as the Jains say, intentions don't matter, actions do.

It is like giving a sword to a monkey tho it was never the intent to have ur nose cut off.

I understand the logic is that he is White-skinned, and praising some aspect of Indian tradition. But unlike Indians who have internalized racism, and imagine that praise from a White skin is a terrific argument, Westerners do understand that many Whites are uneducated. They will exploit your mistakes for years to the maximum extent possible.

Knowledge is needed even for a simple war, and in a civilizational war such ill-informed remarks can undo decades of research by equating my work with the remarks of this buffoon. s

[ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಂಚಯ @kannadasanchaya]

ಫಾಂಟ್ಸ ಸಂಚಯ ಬದಲಾಗಿದೆ. ನಿಮಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ಫಾಂಟುಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿಸಲು ಜೊತೆಯಾಗಿ.

https://t.co/szDgvWE1pP #Kannada #Fonts

[Andrew Brown @andrewbrown]

While I package my free Claude Code Essentials course and then proceed to pull 12 hour work days to ship my free Claude Certified Architect study course, let me you behind the scene for a moment.

For the past 10 years I’ve tried to make high-quality cloud/tech courses freely available.

This is a personal choice I made, because it's what I want to do for you my tech community.

To make this happen I’ve structured my life around keeping costs as low possible so I could continue doing this, even when it wasn’t the most financially sensible path.

But the reality is that producing these courses takes an enormous amount of time and resources.

The model only works if enough people support it in small ways subscribing, sharing the content, or supporting the paid offerings that help fund the free material.

If my 50 free courses have helped you in your career in the last decade.

Please consider the small things like following or subscribing to my own Youtube channel.

It makes a bigger difference than most people realize.

For those who have been supporting us all these years, you are the real hero's because I simply would have never been able to do it without you.

[Vedveer Arya वेदवीर आर्यः 🇮🇳 @VedveerArya3]

Use of Infinitesimal Time Units in Ancient India

[Aravind @aravind]

Not just Fibbonacci series, Indians discovered:

- Pythagorean theorem and geometric constructions (Baudhayana Sulba Sutras)

- Binary patterns, binomial coefficients, Pascal’s triangle (Pingala’s Chhandas Shastra)

- Positional decimal numeral system that we use today (Vedic period onward, formalized by Aryabhata)

- Concept of zero as a number (Jain texts 300 BCE onward, rules formalized by Brahmagupta, 628 CE)

- Negative numbers and their operations (Brahmagupta)

- Sine and cosine tables, trigonometric identities, and π approximation (Aryabhata)

- General solutions to quadratic equations and methods of solving them (Brahmagupta)

- Infinite power series for π, sine, cosine, and arctangent (Madhava of Sangamagrama)

- Precursors to Number theory, Calculus, Algebraic methods and many more

[Yashveer @yashv_r]

For researchers, professors, scientists, or anyone working with GIS data in India --> this thread is for you.

I spent 4-5 years working with Indian geospatial data, and something was missing.

Here's what I built and why.

https://t.co/fOPBW2QWPZ

[PCCF WL & CWLW, Odisha @PCCFWL_Odisha]

A swift rescue at Banajudi, Keonjhar 🐘

#Odisha #elephantrescue #keonjhar #wildliferescue #odishaforestdepartment #humanwildlifecoexistence #elephantconservation #wildlifeindia

[Divisional Forest Officer, Keonjhar (T) @DfoKeonjhar]

Archimedes principle (floating)won over Inclined plane (ramp) principle as ramp involved risk of wall collapse and despite floating involved risk of drowning in the midst of lethal fall in 30 feet deep well
@IPR_Odisha @CMO_Odisha @PCCFWL_Odisha @pccfodisha @moefcc @wti_org_india @supriyasahuias @paragenetics @nilamadhabpanda @pargaien @RourkelaRc79045 @GaneshRamBJP @PMOIndia @Manekagandhibjp @DGPOdisha @susantananda3 @ParveenKaswan @projectelephan2 @thebetterindia @BrutIndia @timesofindia

[Michael Pyrcz🌻 @GeostatsGuy]

"Howdy Folks, I'm Michael Pyrcz, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, and I record all of my lectures and put them on YouTube so anyone can follow along!"

...and I kept doing that, and writing a Python package, along with 2 free, online e-books, 100s of Python demonstration workflows, dozens of synthetic datasets, etc. etc.

Why? So anyone can follow along!

Education changes lives. I know because it changed mine. I’m just paying it forward.